Now that it’s do or die, Astros must get offense in gear

Astros left fielder Michael Brantley has managed just two hits in 16 ALDS at-bats against the Rays.

Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

After four performances unbecoming of the title to which it lays claim, baseball’s best lineup is on the brink of elimination.

For six months, the Astros abused opponents with their lineup’s length and balance. Adding a revolutionary rookie slugger in June only heightened the task of traversing Houston’s batting order. It led the league with an .848 OPS, struck out less than any team in baseball, and hit a franchise-record 288 home runs.

Good opposing pitching gave little cause for concern. Against the four other American League playoff teams, the Astros slugged .496, struck out only 17.5 percent of the time, and hit 78 home runs.

Thoughts of a total shutdown were far-fetched, but the task the Astros faced against Tampa Bay in the American League Division Series was never considered easy.

It has become excruciating.

Dominant outings by Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole masked the deficiencies during the first two games. Two torturous showings at Tropicana Field, both with a series win at stake, instantly magnified the issues.

“It’s time for us to go off as an offense,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “You guys are used to seeing us score 10, 15 runs in the regular season, but when it comes to the playoffs, it’s the best of the best, and they’re doing a good job. At the same time, we’re the best offense in the league, and we have to adjust in our approach.”

In four games, Houston has totaled 13 runs against the Rays’ revolving door of dominant relief pitchers. Tampa Bay gifted two of those on an outfield miscommunication during Game 1, the only game in which the Astros scored more than four times.

In 133 ALDS at-bats preceding Thursday’s Game 5, Houston has a .685 OPS and a .294 on-base percentage. The Astros have struck out 39 times in 34 innings. They struck out 10 times in Game 1 and 13 times in Game 3.

Opportunities that Houston has created have combusted. The Astros are 6-for-30 (.200) with runners in scoring position, exacerbating their offensive difficulties.

“I kind of see it a different way,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said Wednesday. “I see it as their pitching has really done exceptionally well, and our guys have had a few games here to see these guys over and over again.”

Hinch’s assertions are not without merit. The Rays don’t draw the national audience of the Astros or Yankees, nor do they employ many players casual baseball fans can easily name. But their prowess is undeniable.

In this sport’s home run-happy era, Tampa allowed a major league-low 181. Houston has hit just four in four games. Two are courtesy of Jose Altuve.

“They’ve got really good pitching,” Altuve said Wednesday. “And playoff (baseball) doesn’t get really easier. So we’re going to try to do our best (Thursday). We know we have to put good at-bats together and score some runs. That’s the only way we’re going to win.”

The Rays’ bullpen boasted baseball’s best ERA and struck out more than 800 batters. No other major league bullpen eclipsed 780. The array of arms, angles and arsenals they can deploy is devastating.

“The way they’ve been pitching, you can’t be too patient,” Correa said. “They’re going to throw strikes. They’re attacking hitters, getting strike one almost every time, it seems. You have to be selectively aggressive. You want to be aggressive with your pitch. To score a lot of runs, we’ve got to put great at-bats together, and we haven’t been able to do that the last two days.”

The beauty of Tampa’s bullpenning is the ability to keep any opponent off-balance. Altuve faced the three aforementioned pitchers in his first three at-bats Tuesday. Preparing for such a seismic change in-game is a challenge.

“It’s up to us to make the adjustments,” Hinch said. “We’ve seen these guys now. … When you see a guy over and over again, you’ve got to find a way to put up good at-bats.”

Altuve, Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez have recorded hits in all four games. Support surrounding them is nonexistent. Leadoff hitter George Springer and cleanup man Michael Brantley are a combined 4-for-33. Add in Josh Reddick’s 1-for-7, and Houston’s starting outfield is 5-for-40 (.125) in the series.

“I like the fact that for the most part we have attacked them in the strike zone,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “They’re an offense that if you mess around and don’t establish strikes, they're going to get you, and they’re going to find their way on base, and that’s when they really get the big hit.”

Brantley’s slump stretches to September, when he had a .552 OPS in 86 plate appearances. Springer, the catalyst for so many postseason memories during Houston’s recent renaissance, snapped an 0-for-13 start to the ALDS with two singles in Tuesday’s game.

Perhaps a return to Minute Maid Park, where the Astros amassed an .878 OPS during the regular season, is a panacea. Hinch was encouraged with the lineup’s quality of at-bats during the ninth inning Tuesday. Houston brought the tying run to the plate twice against Snell, who made his first major league relief appearance.

The results matched many that preceded them. Alvarez struck out, and Gurriel hit a sharp grounder straight into the shift. The game ended, and the Astros, a team with so much past experience in elimination games, put itself in another.

“You know, what will help us is playing with the lead and scoring more runs,” Hinch said. “That will help more than any sort of experience.”

Chandler Rome joined the Houston Chronicle in 2018 to cover the Astros after spending one year in Tuscaloosa covering Alabama football — during which Nick Saban asked if he attended college. He did, at LSU, where he covered the Tigers baseball team for nearly four years. He covered most of the Astros' 2015 playoff run, too, as an intern for MLB.com

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